Weasley
by doubelieveinmagic23
Summary: Lucy Weasley has been raised by her family, since her mother left when she was young.  On her 17th birthday her mother returns to tell her about a dark secret from her past.  Lucy must come to terms with this startling news.


Author's Note: Um... well obviously the Harry Potter universe belongs to J. K. Rowling. And... yeah reviews are nice. And... yup that's all I got. :-)

Prologue: Surprise

Poke.

Poke.

POKE.

"Are you awake?"

"Gemerumf… kill… you…"

"Oh good. I was worried you might be dead or something for a moment there."

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times sleepily. Inches away from my pale nose lay another nose. Attached to that nose was a face, a face with chocolate brown eyes, tightly braided hair, and a mischievous smirk. Said smirk belonged to my cousin, Roxanne Weasley, who was lying in my bed next to me. Her smirk turned into a wide grin, showing an unnecessary amount of teeth.

"I'm going to kill you," I said, repeating what I had been trying to say before. I sat up and reached for her, but she was too quick. She leaped off the bed with the quickness that came from being a Chaser and turned to face me. She pouted.

"You didn't notice," she whined, hanging her head. She tucked her hands behind her back and stuck her lip out even further than it had been before.

"Notice what?" I asked, brushing my hair out of my face. It was always in the way, but something in me had always refused to chop it off like my sister Molly had.

"Look!" She grinned and bared her teeth for me to see again, and I noticed what she was so intent upon my seeing.

"You got your braces off," I said lightly, then I grew suspicious, "So soon?"

"Well, you see, I convinced mother than Aunt Hermione was being silly about the whole 'Muggle tooth-care' thing. I mean, it's _so_ much faster and easier with magic. There's no pain at all! It's just a quick, simple procedure at St. Mungo's, and you've got straight teeth! See?" She smiled again and pointed to them, giggling loudly like the 14-year-old she was. "You'd think, what with her being all awesome at magic and stuff, she'd be more willing to see the benefits of it, especially on teeth."

"Aunt Hermione's parents were dentists," I explained, shrugging my shoulders (though personally I agreed with Roxanne).

"What are dentists?" she asked, and I was reminded that not everyone had the benefit of taking Muggle Studies as I had.

"They take care of teeth in the Muggle world."

"They have a whole job for that? I mean, can't Muggles brush their own teeth?" Roxanne asked inquisitively.

"Well, what if they get a cavity?" I asked.

"Can't they just take a… well, I suppose they can't take a potion to make it go away. Huh…" Roxanne paused thoughtfully, giving me just enough time to throw my pillow at her and hit her square in the face. "Hey!" she exclaimed, throwing it back at me. I dodged, grinning.

"That's what you get for waking me up so early! And on my _birthday_, no less!" I accused her, a smile hidden behind the annoyed look in my eyes.

"Whatever," she said, rolling her eyes. "Anyways, I went to an orthodoctor, not a dentist."

"An _orthodontist_?" said a voice from the hallway. Aunt Hermione looked in, a disapproving look on her face. "Roxanne, we asked you to let Lucy sleep."

"I know… but, I was hungry…" she ducked her head sheepishly. "Sorry," she mumbled in my direction, and then skipped off and out the door.

I knew she wasn't really sorry, but I didn't let it bother me. Roxanne was a bit immature for her age, but I suppose that comes from being the baby of the family. And I don't mean just the baby of her family, I mean the baby of the _entire_ Weasley clan. She was 6 years younger than her older brother Fred, and had been a "surprise" baby, better known as an "oops." But no matter, despite her immaturity, she was a bright light in our lives, always saying or doing something funny to bring a smile to our faces. She wasn't quite the prankster Fred was, and certainly not nearly what her father had been, but she still had that impish Weasley smile and the ability to make anyone happy.

"Well, now that you're up, you'd better get dressed and come down to eat. Roxanne isn't the only one that's hungry," Aunt Hermione said, smiling. She kissed me on the forehead gently. "Happy birthday, dear one," and with that she left the room, shutting the door gently behind her.

I stood up and stretched, then headed to my closet to pick out some clothes. I threw on a pair of white tights and a navy dress. I wasn't terribly girly, but I was opposed to pants. Ever since I had been a little girl, I had hated them, and only wore dresses. This gave my aunts an excuse to dress me up in little pink dresses until I could dress myself. That immediately allowed me to wear plainer, less frilly dresses in dark colors paired with tights or leggings. I brushed my hair back from my face and French-braided it, then threw it back over my shoulder, feeling the end of it brush my waist.

"SURPRISE!" came the expected greeting as I walked downstairs. Every year that someone from the family came of age, we threw a "surprise" party, complete with breakfast cooked by Grandma. I put on the obligatory look of shock and then grinned widely.

The day consisted of hugs from all my various cousins, young and old, and kisses and coos from my aunts, followed by stories of how they were there when I was born, and how I was such a miracle baby. The story of my birth was told and discussed in great detail, more detail than I wanted to know, actually. The focus was put on me, and not my mother, since my mother (who no one had seen in years) was a bit of a touchy subject. I had been born on the Knight Bus, when my mother and Aunts had been going to visit my grandmother for one of their "Girl's Nights". I was a month early, and apparition is difficult when pregnant, especially off of the Knight Bus. Side-along apparition is too dangerous when in labor, so I had been born right there on the Knight Bus. Aunt Fleur had held my mother's hand while Aunt Hermione and Aunt Angelina had brought me into the world. There was still a picture of me, all red and wrinkly, at the front of the bus with the caption "Knight Bus Baby." It was an embarrassment that I was destined to bare forever.

After much celebration and presents and several renditions of Happy Birthday, I was able to escape outside. I sat down on the back porch swing and sighed contentedly. A figure appeared in the door, and I cursed my luck at having been caught. I then smiled when I saw who it was.

"So you escaped, huh? That's better than I did last month," Louis said, grinning. It was a smile that caused half of the girls and several of the guys at Hogwarts to fall all over themselves.

"Yeah, Aunt Angelina caught you headed out the side door and set you straight," I said, smiling as I remembered the memory of my tall aunt half-dragging him back to the couch where everyone was comfortably situated.

"Well, Happy Birthday, I guess," he said, holding out a flat package. I took it and carefully undid the red ribbon that he had tied around it, and then ripped the paper off. I grinned up at him when he flinched at how I brutally destroyed his work. He had obviously taken great care to wrap it, as he always did. And I had ripped it to shreds, as I always do. I opened the box.

"Oh, Louis, they're beautiful!" I exclaimed, pulled my present out of the box. It was a pair of tights, in a gorgeous shade of silver. I looked up at him, glowing. "You _always_ know just what I want."

"Eh, it comes from being your best friend," he said, shrugging. "Oh, and also my impeccable sense of fashion."

Louis was very fashion conscientious for a boy, and many at Hogwarts thought he was gay. He did nothing to stop the rumors, since he didn't really care. He knew that he was straight, and that was all that mattered to him. Albus, my dear cousin, was the only gay person in our family, though not the stereotypical gay, as so many people make the mistake of thinking. He was a beater on the Hufflepuff Quidditch team and about as manly as guys get.

Louis and I sat there in a comfortable silence, swinging back and forth. Suddenly, a figure appeared on the lawn out of nowhere. She'd obviously gotten here by apparition. I stood up with Louis, looking curiously to see who it was. When she turned to face me, I nearly fell over.

It was my mother.

"Mom…?" I asked quietly. I stepped forward, then back, grabbing Louis's arm for support. My legs were shaking. He quickly threw his arm around my waist to support me.

"Wow. How you've grown," she said as she approached me. When she reached me, she placed both hands on my face. "Let me look at you."

I hadn't seen my mother since I was 10 years old. She'd left my father, my sister, and I without an explanation of any kind. One day she'd been there, the next, gone, with only a note saying she was safe and not to come looking for her. In another time my father said we'd have assumed that she was taken prisoner or dead, the note a forgery, but in these calm, happy times we knew she had really left us. Molly had been 17 then, fresh out of Hogwarts. She had done her best to raise me, teaching me about makeup and boys and the like. She was a sister and mother all wrapped up in one for me. I'd never imagined that I'd see my real mother again, but there she was, standing in front of me, looking like an older version of myself. We looked quite alike; I had her dark, straight brown hair, her pale skin, her bright blue eyes, even her petite frame.

"You've grown into such a beautiful, young woman, Lucy," my mother whispered, a tear glistening in her eye. "I know that I have no right, but… might I speak with you? Privately, dear?" Her eyes traveled to look at Louis, and she smiled. "Still best friends, I see."

"You're right," Louis said sharply. "We're still best friends, and you don't have any right."

"Louis," I admonished quietly, stepping away from him. I turned to face him, taking in his look of disbelief and fury.

"She left you!" he exclaimed.

"Louis," I said again, placing one hand on his shoulder. "I know, but… she's still my mother. Just… give us a sec, okay?"

Louis brushed my hand off his shoulder and angrily stomped inside. He had a right to be angry. He'd seen how it had torn my family apart. My father had been a shadow of the man he was for years, and Molly had been devastated. Me, I had hidden my pain well, shoving it down into some part of me that remained dormant until my third year when my first boyfriend had broken up with me. He'd said he didn't want me, the git, and it had brought up so many memories of feeling unwanted by my mother. Louis had been there for me, not really knowing what to say, being only 13, but he did the best he could. All of the cousins had been there for me, and I'd spent more than one night crying myself to sleep in Dominique or Rose's bed.

"Darling, I know I haven't been the best mother. I regret my decision of leaving you every day. Your father and I were two different people, and we just weren't meant for each other. I shouldn't have left your sister and you, though. That was wrong of me, and I apologize, though I know you probably won't forgive me, and I wouldn't expect it of you," my mother began, staring at her hands, which were clasped tightly together.

"So… is that why you're here? To tell me you're sorry?" I asked, frowning. That didn't seem right. I figured there must be something else.

"No, actually... I suppose the apology was long overdue. I'm here because you're coming of age, and I believe that I owe it to you to tell you this. It's important for you to know, but it's hard for me to say. You're father… Percy… he doesn't know, and neither does your sister. I am the only one who knows, and now you must. Darling… I don't know how to say this, but… Percy isn't your real father."

"Um… what?" I asked, confused. The words seemed foreign to me, and I couldn't understand what she meant.

"I was having an affair at the time you were conceived. Your birth father is a man named Tom. We broke off our affair shortly after you were born, and I haven't seen him in years. He didn't know, either. I'm so sorry, Lucy." My mother reached out as if to touch my arm in some form of consolation, but seemed to suddenly think better of it, and she pulled back sharply. "I didn't take you with me when I left because I figured things were better off for you. You had a big family who loved you, and what could I offer but a lonely apartment with no one but myself to take care of you."

"You… dad… Percy… I'm… not a Weasley…" I trailed off, my entire world completely shattered. Why she hadn't taken me with her didn't matter. I'd learned to live with her departure soon after my third year, but the fact that my family wasn't really my family was extremely disturbing to me.

A voice broke through the silence. "Audrey?" It was my father, looking out across the lawn. Behind him stood Louis, looking enraged, and an equally angry Aunt Ginny. The rest of the family crowded in the door, looking out at the scene.

"Percy," my mother said, stepping into the light to look at him. "I'm so sorry. I feel I've made a terrible mistake coming here, but I couldn't just let her not know."

"Know what?" Molly asked from the doorway. She stepped forward to stand beside my father. I hadn't seen her yet at the party, since she had to come late because of work. I longed to run into her comforting arms as I so often had in the past years. She was only my half-sister, I realized to myself, shaking my head.

"Lucy is… she is… not Percy's daughter. I was having an affair. I'm so sorry," my mother choked on a sob, then turned quickly to apparate away. In an instant, she was gone.

I fell to my knees, putting my hands in the grass and automatically pulling it out as I always did. I shook my head. I wasn't a Weasley. My whole world had been built upon the concept. I had been raised by the entire family, my life revolving around birthdays and family gatherings and how we all stuck together at school. Everything I knew and had experienced had come from them. Victoire had taught me how to French braid my hair, and Dominique had been there to pierce my belly and Lily's eyebrow without our parent's permission at school. James had beat up every boy who ever laid eyes on me, and Albus and Hugo had helped him beat up my ex-boyfriends when we parted unhappily. When Molly was out of town, Aunt Ginny had brewed me a pregnancy test, since I had skipped a period the month after I'd caught my boyfriend Terence cheating on me. He'd been my first, and I'd been terrified that I was having his child at only 16. The test had come out negative, and it turned out I was only two weeks late. Of course, after that, all of the aunts had given me some form of the "wait until you're in love" talk, which I'd had before and hadn't listened to. So many memories danced in my head, all of them revolving around my family, or what I'd thought was my family. My identity was suddenly thrown to the wind. If I wasn't a Weasley, then I didn't know who I was...

I shut my eyes and let myself curl into a ball on the ground, thinking that maybe, just maybe if I closed my eyes tight enough, I'd wake up and this would all be a bad dream.


End file.
